PESHAWAR: “I am eligible for the post of office assistant but my name is missing from the initial list. We had attached great expectations to the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf-led government but it also failed to provide justice to poor,” said Younas Iqbal, a youth from Karak district while searching his name in the list eligible candidates for recruitment in Rescue 1122.

He is one of the 12,000 youth, who visit different offices of Rescue 1122 to search their names among those of short-listed candidates so that they could attend various tests for recruitment in the organisation. Standing depressed along Bara Road, Mr Iqbal told Dawn that his name was intentionally dropped from the list despite the fact that he fulfilled the set criteria.

Waseem, another candidate belonging to Mardan district, also expressed similar views. He said that he had relevant qualification so he rushed to Peshawar with the hope that his name would be definitely included in the initial list but in vain. He said that even they were not given a chance to appear in the tests and interviews.

Akhtar Ali of Charsadda also seemed y disappointed when he didn’t find his name in the list. He said that he did not know as to what was the criterion for recruitment in Rescue 1122 because he had the required qualification.

Aurangzeb Khan of Mardan said that he belonged to a poor family and did not know any of the leaders in the ruling clique that’s why his name was dropped by the officials of Rescue 1122.

Ashfaq Alam, another candidate from Lakki Marwat, said that he had already spent thousands of rupees on transportation and stay in hotels in Peshawar to reach timely. “The names of majority of the people belonging to our district are missing from the list,” he said in a dejected mood.

Mushtaq, a candidate from Takhtbai, also crticised the government and questioned the recruitment criteria. He said that his family voted for the rulers in the elections as they expected justice from Imran Khan, the chairman of ruling party in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

A large number of candidates gathered on Bara Road to search their names in the list displayed on a wall of Qayyum Sport Complex here on Wednesday were chanting slogans against the government for not including them in the first merit list.

However, Rescue 1122 spokesperson Bilal Ahmed Faizi rejected the allegations and claimed that the recruitments were processed purely on the basis of merit. He said that of the 12,000 applicants some 5,000 were short-listed.

The vacant posts, he said, were of office superintendent, personal assistant, stenographers, transport maintenance inspectors, office assistant, store assistant, lead firer rescuers, supervisor (swimmer), supervisor (operation), computer operators, shift in-charge, telephone and wireless operator.

Mr Faizi said that Rescue 1122 was serving the people selflessly and provided services to people in more than 40,000 kinds of various incidents in Peshawar and Mardan. He said that 1,500 candidates appeared in the physical tests at Qayyum Stadium on the first day.